Obama and Rick Santorum are Coal Brothers

I don’t know if anybody has noticed, but President Obama seems to be a big fan of “clean coal”. When he talks to the nation about energy, usually the first thing out of his mouth is “clean coal”. I would imagine that he probably wakes up in the middle of the night screaming “damn it Michelle, CLEAN COAL!” It’s almost as if somebody might be contributing to his campaign to win such a ringing endorsement for this environment crippling source of energy; Hmmm, I wonder who that could be?

Obama isn’t alone though: he has a bi-partisan ally in Rick “give a hoot please pollute” Santorum. You see, when Mr Frothy Mix isn’t busy bashing homosexuals, immigrants, and women over the head with his bible, he’s nestled contentedly in the wallet of one of the nation’s biggest coal producers, Consol Energy. From 2010 until August of 2011, he “volunteered” his services to Consol to the tune of nearly $150,00. Previously, Consol donated nearly $75,000 to his coffers during his time as a legislator. This is actually a mere pittance when compared to the
$10,000,000 that Consol spent last year to lobby against caps on greenhouse emissions. In every instance, Santorum’s pro pollution stance has mirrored that of Consol. I would bet that when Santorum is fucking his wife (missionary style and only missionary style, anything else would be absolutely sinful), he cries out Consol’s name!

In light of this, I have one piece of advice for President Obama: Distance yourself from “clean coal”. Continue to push our country to clean, renewable sources of energy. Stop sharing the back pockets of the coal industry with the likes of Rick Santorum. Climb out of that soot covered bill fold, and look to a future of clean energy. There is profit there after all; you’ll probably see more green by continuing to go green 😉

Clean Coal is about as theoretical as Quantum Physics. I could prattle on for hours about coal but will try to resist..

Sure, there may be one facility in America that’s capable of capturing some carbon (and they use it to aid Canadian oil production). But it was built in 1984 and not a single finger has been lifted to make a similar facility since. Seeing how old it is, if it weren’t such a convenient PR prop, it might be mothballed any time now. Only in Germany, where they give half a shit about the environment, does “clean coal” stand a chance of ever happening. (They opened an experimental plant in 2008 to aid in the phase-out of nuclear power.)

But all that Clean Coal claptrap focuses only on it’s end use. It completely ignores it’s production. It ignores the toxic tailings, the threat to water and the amount of emissions required to get that coal. It also ignores the health and safety of workers, neighbours and the devastation caused by mining the shit. (Websearch: Mountain top removal) Coal is just nasty shit from beginning to end.

The reality is that, even IF Clean Coal wasn’t the complete fairy tale written for PR purposes that it is, and, even if it actually worked perfectly & was actually being used by every coal burner, it would still be a very misleading term.